Pardon my French: faux pas we make when discussing mental health

Sorry but I will not “kill you right now” nor do I think our ANZAC’s were on a “suicide mission”

By Breanna Jayne Sada- Psychologist

Pardon my french

I will admit I have been guilty of it, adopting mental illnesses and mental health terms as part of colloquial conversation, and I bet if you think about it to you might be able to recall yourself adopting such terms into everyday conversations or using terms inappropriately. Have you ever said or heard a friend say “I’m a bit OCD today” or “she is so bipolar” or been watching the football and heard a commentator say “suicide pass”. Sure, at first glance these might seem like harmless, off the cuff comments but on closer examination our language around mental health and mental illness is contributing to the stigma around mental health issues and trivialising these conditions, ultimately preventing people from accessing the supports they need.

There has been a commendable shift in societal attitude surrounding mental health over the last 10-20 years or so. Australia is no exception to this. More than ever are people talking about mental illness, encouraging others to seek help and seeking help themselves. We have even seen governments and big business back mental health Initiatives to prevent the onset of and increase help seeking for Mental Illness. While we are on the road to eradicating stigma and stereotypes there can be no doubting that these still exist. At this point someone might say sure this stigma still exists! But there is nothing I can do about it, what can one person do? Well it all starts by what is coming out of your mouth and what we find acceptable coming out of other peoples.

Lets start with suicide. Suicide is still an unsolved issue in our country. In 2016 2,866 people took their own life (ABS). That is almost 8 people a day! Suicide is the leading cause of death in our young people and our suicide rate is higher than the national road toll. When we look at it plainly like that I’m sure if you asked anyone they would say we need to do anything we can not to trivialize or glamorize this preventable cause of death. I was sitting on the couch watching football with my Dad one weekend and recall the commentator describing a risky pass that was intercepted as a “suicide pass”, as a psychologist this stood out to me and I couldn’t let it go for some time. Of course I still remember at high school learning about our heroic ANZAC’s at Gallipoli and the teacher describing that day as a “suicide mission”. I remember watching the rolling coverage of our Australian politicians in 2013 and acts by our serving Prime Minister being described as “political suicide”. When hanging out with my friends now or listening to the younger generation of today speak and when frustrated or overwhelmed they are quick to say “kill me now”. I am reminded each time that our language needs addressing. Using suicide to describe acts of war or sport runs the risk of glamorising such an act, and throw away comments like “kill me now” or “political suicide” trivialises a very serious issue. Mindframe, a body that guides the media on how to report about suicide has a great graphic about watching our language around suicide, which should not just guide the media but everyone’s language.

We’ve got two problems!

The first problem is how we talk about people with mental illness’ and the second is using mental health terms out of context.

Examples of the faux pas we make when talking about those with mental illness include calling someone with a mental illness a derogatory name like; “psycho”, “schizo”, “drugo” or “crazy”. Speaking with sufferers of mental illness everyday, they describe such language as a barrier to speaking to friends and family about their own difficulties in fear of judgment. Also labelling a person, as being his or her mental illness isn’t acceptable, someone with schizophrenia is not a “schizophrenic” just like someone suffering from cancer is not “cancer”. This is something they live with and a challenge in their life but it does not describe all that they are.

The faux pas we make when using mental health terms out of context might be a little harder to stop, as they seem to be ingrained in our everyday language;

- Saying someone is ‘OCD’ if they like to be neat

- Use of ‘bipolar’ to describe sudden changes in mood, in yourself/someone else

- Using ‘depressed’ to describe feeling sad

- Asking someone if they forgot to take their ‘happy pills’ when upset or angry

- Telling someone you will ‘kill yourself’ when slightly inconvenienced

I’m sure you get my point by now!

The final faux pas that is pretty common is this. Someone suffers from a “Mental Illness” they do not suffer from “Mental Health”. Mental Health is actually a good thing that we want to promote and foster. Imagine a Mental Health continuum at one end is good Mental Health and the other is Mental Illness. During our lives we are constantly moving along this continuum, just like our Physical Health our Mental Health needs constant attention and support.

Mental Illnesses are serious conditions that need our respect. Just like we would not trivialise cancer or MS it is not okay to do so with anxiety, depression, psychosis or any other Mental Illness. The good news is that we are getting better and our society today is much more accepting than the society our parents lived in. So lets continue this trend and make sure our children are fluent in the language of Mental Health.

So I pledge from today onwards to pardon my french when it comes to Mental Illness and contribute to a community with less stigma and more acceptance. Less disregard and more respect. Who’s with me?

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